If we were having coffee – 10 October 2015

A Thought To Consider by Seward Johnson Sculpture currently in the Parc Monceau, Paris Aren’t you reminded of Renoir?

If we were having coffee, we would of course be having tea. Or, I can, if you want grind some Zotter coffee (yes the same place where I got last week’s chocolate) in my mortar and pour hot water on it, but there are chances that you won’t like it, due to the way it’s prepared…

How have you been doing? Can I ask you to be quiet? Little one and S are sleeping while I am writing this. But, you are still welcome to join me for a chat.

How has your week been? Up to anything exciting?

If we were having coffee I’d be all giggly telling you that I decided to finally register my domain. So you are now visiting solveigwerner.com, I see it as a sign of more confidence in my writing and blogging. Now, it is time to take some steps forward and do some more serious writing. I would definitely love to try myself and freelance writing, after all I always wanted to write for a living (I will have to do a post on why I write, it has tickling me for a while now). Any tips of where to look?
I am also thinking about doing some cool features/series on this blog, such as interviews and portraits. I have always enjoyed doing interviews, I actually did quite a few in the past, first with the Student Radio, I was an active member of and then for my various research papers. As for the portraits, I have a love for biographies, and doing portraits of writers, bloggers, artists, musicians would definitely be a fun thing to do. Of course I would have to do some good research.
Would you like that?

But now to the week, you probable want to know some details right? Besides writing a few blog posts, I started writing something that seems like something more than just a simple blog post. On Sunday we had a little family adventure by the Seine (a post about that coming ups soon). I then started my week completely unbalanced, in need of sleep, thus I did not join in the blog battle, but hopefully I’ll be able to do so in the week to come. Quickly I reestablished my balance, I started a royal jelly cure and it seems as though it helps. Besides that I have been drinking a lot of green tea. A fair amount of time was spend this week with cleaning the house, it seems like my apartment just grew a bit, thanks to good organisation. Now all of our books have moved to the living room, except for the dictionaries they don’t need to be prominently displayed here.

Today, I received a very pleasant surprise in my mailbox, a postcard from Brisbane, send by an old friend from high school.

Last week I asked you about twitter tips, and I have just tried sharing things via twitter, and I have the feeling that I am not a complete beginner anymore. I hope that you agree with me.

One last thing, I have a small question. As you might know, I work as a freelance German teacher, and I would like to widen my reach by teaching lessons online via Skype. I am therefore thinking about advertising my teaching services in a small tab on my blog, but S thinks it’s best to keep my blog for creativity and not misuse it for work. What do you think? Would it annoy you to see “German lessons” next to the “About” tab in the menu or anywhere in the menu?

Thank you for stopping by, please make sure to head over to Diana’s blog Part-Time Monster, check out her coffee post and see what others have to say/join the linky with your own thoughts.

Hi Solveig! (Trent said in a whispered voice 😉 ) I think expanding and doing things like interviews and portraits would work well here. I would not mind one bit if you had an “advertisement” for German lessons on the blog, but you might thinking about starting a whole new blog for that. You could then have a link to that other blog.

I’m assuming you now teach German to people who speak French. Do you also teach it to English speakers?

Hi Trent, I will just have to start doing these new features then.
As for the lessons the language my students speak is not an obstacle, I try to teach in ESL style but for German, and explain things in my students language if necessary.
I am watching he ironman and enjoying an herbal tea with my mom, so at the moment I cannot complain about the quality of my weekend. Have a great weekend too.

I think it would be perfectly wonderful for you to include an ad. I don’t see anything wrong at all with a blog pertaining to more than one area of a person’s life…and if you can use your creative space to help fuel your financial security, I think that’s fantastic.

What a lovely update, Solveig, lots of wonderful developments. Given that your blog is multilingual, German language lessons don’t contradict your ‘brand’ 🙂 look forward to your feature. I’m starting one soon too and your post on why you write would be a perfect match for my blog (if you are interested :))

Thank you Gulara!
Your words, for some reason, always mean a lot for me.
Well it’s I guess 90% English but shhh…
I’d love to do a post for you about why I write. Thanks for the invitation. But beware it might be a bit long…

No worries! Go for it. I’ll put out an official invite/ announcement sometimes next week. I’d love for your story to be first! 🙂
And I’m very touched my words mean a lot to you. I feel so much warmth and deep connection to you, Solveig. Thank you for your openness and being you!

I have a site in French for my teaching, but I have only been contacted that way once… All of my clients have come through one tutoring site, but never for online lessons.
I’ll see what I am going to do. I am very bad at self-promotion, promoting others is really not a problem.
Thanks!

I blog about my book and many people offer their art work and crafts for sale, so why should you not offer German lessons? I’m glad you took the step to register your domain. Forge ahead – you’re doing great so far!

Good luck with your German lessons, and it was nice of your friend to send you a postcard. I do interviews on my blog too, they are such a cool way to connect with people, aren’t they? Blessings and have a wonderful week!

Yes to all you mentioned in your post: the portraits/bios/interviews AND the German Lessons.

Quick Story: One time I travelled to Germany with a friend, and borrowed audio lessons from the library. Because I wanted to pronounce things as clearly as possible, I always listened to the lessons at a very high volume. Little did I realize that whenever I repeated the phrases, I was always shouting.

So one day I went to a restaurant with a group of friends who asked how my German was progressing. I told them I was learning a lot, and I started giving a few examples. But, because I was so used to shouting German at home, I didn’t realize I was shouting in the restaurant, not even when everyone in the building went strangely quiet. My poor friends looked so embarrassed!

Hi Solveig, it sounds like you have some really exciting things happening in your life. I think German lessons would be cool, if I had time, I would brush up on mine. Took 6 years of German in school, but although I understand a bit, I have really let it go to waste. I know my son wants to take French lessons, his big dream is to go to Paris and really learn the language. I offered to carry his luggage for him.
PS. I am glad things are going so well for you!!!!!!

Welcome to my blog. This place on the internet has been around for a few years now. For a while I almost called it home. Now, I have been on quite a few breaks, but don’t let that keep you from enjoying my content.